Miami Heat Players Allegedly Ripped Off By Scam Artist

A man named Haider Zafar is accused of swindling people (including Miami Heat players, and Memphis Grizzlies forward Mike Miller) out of millions of dollars. Per the Columbus Dispatch (via Hot Hot Hoops): “NBA basketball player Mike Miller lost money he had invested with Haider Zafar, a witness testified in a bond hearing in federal court. Zafar is charged with defrauding a Washington, D.C.-area businessman in an unrelated $10 million real-estate investment. A former Dublin resident charged with swindling a businessman out of $10 million in a real-estate scheme also ripped off Miami Heat basketball players, a witness said yesterday in federal court in Columbus. That testimony against Haider Zafar helped persuade U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus to keep Zafar in jail as he awaits trial on the swindling scheme. Sargus ruled that Zafar, 35, now of southern Florida, would not be released on bond because he is a flight risk and a danger to the community. ‘The longer the potential sentence, the greater the risk of flight,’ Sargus said. Punishment for each of the 135 counts against Zafar ranges from one to 20 years in prison. [...] Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale Williams put international-investment attorney Andrew Fine on the stand during the detention hearing to detail an investment scheme Zafar operated in Florida. Fine said some Miami Heat players, including former forward Mike Miller, and other Florida residents had invested $8 million with Zafar. When Fine, on behalf of some of those investors, questioned Zafar about where the money was, Zafar told him, ‘They can’t touch me in Pakistan.’”